Nothing really new here, but not a bad film at all

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2005)

In the 1979 film, "Parts: The Clonus Horror," starring Peter Graves (and duly parodied on TV's satirical "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"), the tale is told of a young man raised in a Utopian camp, only to discover he's being "harvested" to provide body parts for the rich and powerful. He tries to escape, but the personnel at the camp do not want him to make it to the outside world.
And while not as silly and unsophisticated as that film (it had "Bewitched's" Dick Sargent in a prominent role, after all), Dreamwork's newest release, "The Island" (directed by Michael Bay, "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor") has basically the same plot. There's also more than passing similarities to "Coma," "Logan's Run," "Blade Runner," "The Matrix," "Gataca," and even "THX1138," among others. So, in other words, "The Island" is as much of a copy as its characters, which live in an underground military bunker.
Set in 2019, the population is force-fed propaganda concerning a worldwide contamination which explains their lifestyle. Each day, lottery winners are given trips to "the island," a paradise that is supposedly the last pestilence-free area on Earth. An intelligent individual, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor, "Blackhawk Down," the last three "Star Wars" films) begins to have feelings that something just isn't right.
After befriending a maintenance man, McCord (Steve Buscemi), he discovers that a trip to the island is just having one's organs removed for their sponsor's medical needs. Lincoln grabs his girl, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson, "Lost In Translation"), who has just won a trip the the island, and, through an incredible series of escapes, tries to find his sponsor in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, security specialist Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou, "Amistad," "In America") and evil facility manager, Merrick (Sean Bean, "Patriot Games"), are hot on their trail.
Bay's direction is a bit slipshod in places, some of the acting is a bit over-the-top, and there's no way much of the technology will be in place by 2019, but the movie is action-packed and fairly enjoyable, if you do not think too much about some of the other films it borrows from. Also features some pretty silly futuristic gadgets and is a bit too long, but overall, this is not a bad movie. Nothing is really new, but it's not bad, and sometimes that's good enough.